


The Tree House

by B_delight



Category: The Boyz (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Angst, Character Death, M/M, Slice of Life, idk what to tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:47:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25257160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/B_delight/pseuds/B_delight
Summary: An accident that keeps many secrets between the three of them
Relationships: Heo Hyunjoon | Hwall/Son Youngjae | Eric, Kim Sunwoo/Son Youngjae | Eric
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25





	The Tree House

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a long time since I last wrote something in English. Please excuse my grammar here :-)

“Sunwoo! Hyunjoon! Please come down here!” the 12 years old blonde boy yelled from under a tree house. He had pout on his lips, sulking at his two best friends up there. “I want to play with you guys, too!”

The said two boys sticking out their head over the fence, looking down at the youngest boy.

“Then come up here, dummy!” the red haired boy said, laughing out loud.

“Sunwoo, don't say that. He's going to be mad at you the whole day,” the black haired said while also holding his laugh.

“I'm not a dummy! And you know that I can't climb up there!”

“Actually, you can, Eric. It's just you're a scaredy cat! Haha!” Sunwoo laughed again.

“I'M NOT A SCAREDY CAT!!” Eric screamed again, a pout still on his face.

“Then come up here!”

“Fine! Watch me!”

“No, Eric! Just stay there!” Hyunjoon yelled. Eric then looked relieved that he didn't actually need to prove anything to Sunwoo. “Sunwoo, let's just go down.”

Sunwoo finally agreed after he finished laughing. “Okay, but let me finish this first.”

Hyunjoon watched as Sunwoo sat in front of the tree trunk, holding a rock, and started to carve something on it using the sharp side of the rock. Hyunjoon rolled his eyes.

“Do you know you look like a fool by making that, Sunwoo?”

Sunwoo turned to him, grinning so widely. “He won't ever come up here. He wouldn't know.”

“Not if i tell him.”

Sunwoo then threw him a death glare, “Don't. You. Dare.”

Hyunjoon giggled. He quickly tell the red haired boy to hurry up when Eric started to call them again, this time sounding more angry. They ended up playing Tag You're It for a few minutes, started with Sunwoo as the It. Then Hyunjoon and finally Eric was the it for more than three rounds. He tried to chase his best friends around but never actually catch them. Blame his legs for being shorter than his friends'.

As Eric seemed to start becoming a lot more eager and running faster despite his heavy breath, Sunwoo started to panic. But Hyunjoon has an idea. He pulled the red haired boy towards the tree again, told him to quickly climb up to the tree house.

“THAT'S NOT FAIR! YOU GUYS ARE CHEATING!!” Eric yelled again as he heard Sunwoo's laughed from the tree house.

“That's your fault for being a scaredy cat!” he stuck his tongue out, making ugly faces to annoy Eric. His upper body was crossing over the fence so Eric could see his mocking face clearly.

Eric's eyes became half blurry as he was trying not to cry because of Sunwoo's mocking, “I TOLD YOU I'M NOT A–”

Eric halted his words as he felt something descended from above next to him, and heard a loud bone-crashing sound followed after. Also, Hyunjoon's voice screaming Sunwoo's name.

The youngest's eyes widened, head still facing the bottom part of the tree house, watching Hyunjoon looking like he was about to reach down to grab Sunwoo. Eric slowly turned his head to the ground while Hyunjoon quickly climbed down the block-steps and ran to Sunwoo's body on the ground. Lying unconscious, blood streaming out from the side of his head.

“SUNWOO!”

“Sun... Woo...”

* * *

Years passed. Eric and Hyunjoon remained best friends. None of ever forgo0t about the accident that made them lost one of their friends. The bright, mischievous, silly, and funny Kim Sunwoo. But they had avoided coming to the tree house as much so they wouldn't be reminded of the horrible incident.

There were times Eric felt despair crawling over his heart after losing the red haired, because he considered Sunwoo as his bestest friend. Not that he thought Hyunjoon was less a best friend than Sunwoo. It was like Eric had something more special about Sunwoo's existence. The feeling of attraction and affection. Not until he and Hyunjoon entered high school, had he noticed he liked Sunwoo the entire time the older was alive. He suddenly felt guilty for not noticing it sooner. He had told Hyunjoon about his feelings while crying in the older's bedroom one day after school. Hyunjoon told him that the blonde didn't need to feel guilty anymore. Hyunjoon made sure to tell Eric that he was there for him too, asking him to not only focus on Sunwoo's death but also his own existence next to younger. That Hyunjoon could replace Sunwoo's spot in Eric's heart.

Months after that, they started dating each other. But still, never had Eric forgotten the feeling he still had for Sunwoo. He kept those feelings a secret from Hyunjoon.

* * *

They were finally graduating from high school. A day after the graduation ceremony, Eric secretly came to the big tree where he, Hyunjoon, and Sunwoo, used to play when they were kids. Sunwoo was the first one to discover the place in the woods behind their neighborhood.

That was another reason why both Eric and Hyunjoon avoided the tree after Sunwoo's gone.

Eric stood before the tree trunk, under the small old wooden house up there. He stared at the block-steps he never even took his step on, because as much as Eric always denied it, Sunwoo was right. Eric was a scaredy cat. The thought of Sunwoo's last mocking face he made for him came in to Eric's mind. The blonde started to cry. If only he could climb up there and play with his friends at the tree house, Sunwoo wouldn't need to stick his body out over the weak fence, mocking him around that he lost his balace, bringing him to his own death.

He wiped his tears and started to hold one of the blocks nailed to the big trunk. He lifted his foot to start stepping on the lowest block. He convinced himself to climb up to the tree house. He wanted to know the feelings of being there, of being where Sunwoo always stayed whenever they played or whenever he wanted to be alone. He wanted to know the feeling of being in Sunwoo's favorite place. Despite Hyunjoon always telling him _'no, it's dangerous'_ for Eric to come up there, Eric threw the fear away. He had to.

He knew he could do it, he was a big guy already. _'No more fear,'_ he convinced himself.

Eric looked down as he was already half the height of the tree. It wasn't scary. He continued climbing until he reached the wooden floor of the tree house. He sat there in silence, and looked around.

It was dark, narrow, silent, and... calming. It was Sunwoo's favorite place and he finally knew the reason why it was. It felt like by being there, he could let his heart out to the darkness even though he was alone. Eric started to cry again, the guiltiness grew once again. He regret so much for never being up there in the tree house, now that he knew it wasn't that scary at all.

He got up and walked closer the broken fence. The spot where he last saw Sunwoo stepping on. He stood there and looked down. It wasn't scary. Watching Sunwoo fell down from there was scarier. He hated those memories. Eric then turned around, facing the big trunk passing through the wooden floor to the ceilings.

He frowned as he found something on the surface of the trunk. His name was carved beautifully next to Sunwoo's on it, with a big heart around them. But it was ruinned by another carving, crossing Sunwoo's name roughly and harshly followed by another word carved next to it, _'die'_. Eric could feel hatred out from those carvings. But who had the heart to do such things? No one even knew this place other than him, Sunwoo, and Hyunjoon.

Eric came to realization. He started to feel terrified as he thought about the only possible person to make those rough carvings.

“Eric? Why are you up here?”

Eric quickly turned his head toward where the voice came from. He saw Hyunjoon was standing near the enterance. His jet black hair blended in with the darkness, but his sharp eyes were still visible to Eric, making him scared as he watched his boyfriend walking closer towards him.

“Hyun- Hyunjoon. Why are you here?”

“You ask the same question,” Hyunjoon scoffed. He had a smirk on his lips as he saw Eric's figure started to shake, but staying where he was standing. One step back, the younger would fall down from the tree house, just like Sunwoo. “Baby, why are you shaking? I'm not going to hurt you.”

“Hyun- Hyunjoon, I–” Eric didn't even know what he was gonna say. He just tried his best not to look at the cravings on the trunk, pretending he hadn't seen it. But Hyunjoon knew exactly what made him so scared like that.

“Oh, you finally saw this? No wonder. You had never been up here until now. I'm surprised that now you have a courage to climb up here,” Hyunjoon said, facing the cravings there. A smirk was painted on his lips as his long fingers caressed Eric's name there. “Aren't you surprised? Knowing Sunwoo had a feeling for you, too? Too bad he died first. Allowed me to carve more on his works. Look, doesn't it look prettier like this?”

“Hyun- Hyunjoon. Wha- what do you mean?”

Hyunjoon turned to face his boyfriend again, hand still on the craving, and smirk on his lips.

“I mean, i'm glad that he died. Allows me to own you for myself,” Hyunjoon said, grabbing Eric's wirst harshly.

“Were you... the one pushing him from the fence?” Eric dared to ask. To be honest, he was still scared seeing Hyunjoon acted this way. The way his eyes pierced in to him was terrifying.

“What? No, baby. He fell on his own. Why are you blaming it on me?”

“I- I don't–”

“Do you hate it? The fact that he liked you too, but you just discovered it now that he is no longer here?” Hyunjoon growled as he tightened his hold on the blonde's wirst.

“Hyunjoon, please let go. It hurts,” Eric begged, but the taller ignored it.

“I hated it, Eric,” Hyunjoon no longer had a smirk on his face. He glared at the boy who was struggling out of his grip. His face full of hatred. “I hate the fact that Sunwoo liked you, too. I hated how you always seemed to care more about him than me.”

“Hyunjoon, please. I'm sorry,” Eric whinned. He didn't know what he was sorry for, he was just so scared. Even more when Hyunjoon started to take a step forward, resulting him to step backward to where the broken fence were. “Stop, Hyunjoon. This is dangerous. Please.”

“I know you still like him even though it's been years since he died. I know you never really like me back, you're just pretending you do. That's stupid, Eric. Come to your senses!” Hyunjoon yelled, taking more step forward. Eric looked behind him, his foot was a step a way from the edge of the wooden. He knew once he lost his balance, it would be the end of his life.

“I'm sorry, Hyunjoon. I can explain about it later. But now, please stop. I'm scared,” Eric cried. But Hyunjoon still ignored him.

“Why do you want to explain? You don't need to, baby. I am the villain here,” a smirk was back on his face as his free hand lifted up to cup Eric's wet cheek while the other was still around the younger's wirst, gripping it roughly. “I need to explain to Sunwoo, that's the right thing to do.”

“H- how?”

The smirk on his face grew bigger, as he leant closer to Eric's face. “I don't know. How about you come with me and help me explain to him?”

“Wha–”

Eric couldn't ask anymore as Hyunjoon closed the gap between their lips and kiss him roughly. Eric tried to pushed his boyfriend away to tell him this was not the right place and time. They could die while kissing. But that's exactly what Hyunjoon wanted. Eric couldn't control his balance as Hyunjoon pushed their body forward, and fell off the tree house.

They both lost their consciousness after the body crashed the hard ground.

* * *


End file.
